Page 53 of The Lies We Believe

“Hang on,” I said, sliding him off my lap. “Let me grab you some water.” A whimper worked its way up River’s throat asI headed to the kitchen, but I was back before he could make another sound. I pulled him back onto my lap, holding him in my embrace where he belonged. His small frame fit perfectly in my arms, like he was made to be there.

Uncapping the bottle, I lifted it to his lips and tipped it so he could swallow the warm water down easily. “T-thank you.”

“Any time,” I said.

“S-she g-gave … me a…m…mess…age.” I arched my brow and ground my molars together. “Y-you…h…ave…t-to…st-stop?—”

“I will not stop until that monster is behind bars and can’t hurt you anymore, River.” He flinched as my anger bled into my voice. No matter how much I tried to control my emotions, I was a fractured vault about to erupt. My hands coasted up his arms, gently massaging his tense muscles. “I’m sorry, angel. Continue.”

The semblance of a smile flickered at the corners of his lips. “T-that’s…the…o…only…w-way.” His voice gave out and his breath caught in the back of his throat like he was choking. “Y-you…l-live.”

I mulled his words over while my fingers dug into his traps and continued down to his obliques before resting on his hips. “She said she’d kill me?” Riv nodded, just a slight dip of his chin, but the fresh wave of tears that carved their way down his cheeks told me everything. “Did she threaten anyone else?”

“Yesssss,” he hissed through clenched teeth.

“Who?”

“E…every…one…I-I…care…a-about.”

“Oh, angel.” I brought my hands up so they could wrap around his shoulders and pulled him into me. River buried his head against my neck and inhaled deeply as my fingers teased the short hairs on the nape of his neck. “I won’t let her hurt anyone else you care about. I prom?—”

“No.” His voice rang out loud and clear, cutting me off with its assertiveness. “D-don’t m…make pr-promises y-you…c-can’t…”

With River in my arms, I deflated into the soft cushions of the couch and tipped my head back, comforted only by the sensation of his exhales ghosting over my skin. I knew what he said was the truth. I couldn’t promise to keep people safe, especially when I didn’t know where they were, but goddammit, I wanted to. I wanted to be his knight in shining armor, but when you were fighting someone as sadistic as the devil, only another monster could outsmart her.

“I will do everything I can to protect them and you. To make this world a safe place for you to live.” Cool lips worked their way up the column of my throat, along my jaw, and up to that sensitive spot just below my ear.

“Thank you.” I felt the shape of his lips more than heard his voice over the pounding of my heart and then chuckled when a yawn pried his lips apart and he grew heavy in my arms.

“Sleep, angel. You need it to heal.” I kissed his sweat-dampened hair and inhaled his cinnamon and orange scent like it was the only thing keeping me going. His scent was like a drug to me. It was better than air.

After River fell asleep and was a deadweight in my arms, my phone vibrated in my back pocket. It took a hell of a lot of wiggling River’s weight around in my arms before I could yank it free, and by then, the call had gone to voicemail. Placing it on the cushion next to me, I waited for either a message alert or for it to start ringing again.

This time, I answered before the first vibration had finished. “Benson.”

Harsh breathing echoed down the line. “It was a bust.” A bust? Oh shit. There was a raid planned on Christine Hamilton’s—the Dahlia’s—today.

“Crap. I forgot.”

“Ha. No shit.” Montoya cackled. “It’s alright. I told Bower what had happened, but he wants answers.”

“I know ” I pushed that point aside for another time because that wasn’t what worried me right now. “What do you mean, it was a bust?”

The raucous noise of the station locker room disappeared when a door slammed shut, and Montoya groaned. “The place was deserted, Benson. Not a print or hair to be found. Every room had been whitewashed, every floor and surface deep cleaned. You could have operated on the ridiculously large dining room table, it was so sterile.” She cleared her throat. “He’s still stewing over what you told him about Davis. He just won’t accept it. I don’t understand. The guy is all kinds of wrong.”

“I agree, but sometimes we can’t see what is right in front of us. He’s spent years working and training with Davis. All we can do is keep an eye on him and report back about any red flags. I don’t trust him as far as I could throw him.”

“You don’t thinkhehad anything to do with the failure of this one?”

“Shit.” I pinched the bridge of my nose in frustration. “This day just keeps getting fucking worse,” I muttered. “I guess only time will tell. If the next one goes the same…it’s a pattern that even Bower can’t ignore. Right?”

“I’d say so, but I bet he slips up before that. Is the kid alright?” The concern lacing her voice gave me a beat of levity. She might be a hardass, but when she cared, she was like a mother hen.

“Yeah, kinda,” I huffed. “We kinda got into it over why he left?—”

“And?”

“He said he did it for me—for us—to help with the case. Said he was willing to die if it meant we could take her down.”

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